Pusher attachment for chain conveyor



AJ.. LINDQUIST l PUSHER ATTACHMENT FOR `CHAIN CONVEYOR Sheets-Sheet 1Oct. 8, 1968 .Filed Jun 6, 196e A. L. LINDQulsT PUSHER ATTACHMENT FORCHAIN CONVEYOR Oct. 8, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 6, 1966INVENTOR. ADOLPH L. LINDQUIST BY www ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent O 3,404,639 PUSHER ATTACHMENT FOR CHAIN CONVEYORAdolph L. Lindquist, 237 Plymouth Ave., Orelaud, Pa. 19075 Filed June 6,1966, Ser. No. 555,446 7 Claims. (Cl. 104-172) ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSUREA car pusher bar is disclosed having at its forward end a hook whichenters into the slot between the rails of the housing of the conveyorchain and engages the conveyor chain. A permanent magnet is provided atthe forward end of the pusher bar to prevent the pusher bar from tiltingover.

This invention relates to a device which is readily attachable to andreadily removable from a moving chain conveyor. The device is intendedto push along an object which is not otherwise coupled to or carried bythe conveyor. A principal use of the device is in an automatic car-washinstallation.

While other uses for the pusher device Iwill occur to those interested,it will be convenient to illustrate and describe my improved device as apusher of passenger cars or trucks through an automatic car washinstallation.

The owner of an automatic car wash is well aware that the demand for hisservices is subject to wide variation. At one extreme is the rainy dayin which virtually no one stops in to have his car washed. At the otherextreme, for example, is a clear, cold weekend day, as in early Spring,following a slushy snow which has melted away leaving the average ownerscar battered with slush and dirt. On such a day, several thousand ormore car owners may drive up to the automatic car wash for service. Itis obviously important to the owner that on such days as many cars aspossible be put through with a minimum of delay. This requires, amongother things, as little time as possible be lost between the washings ofsuccessive cars.

Two meansof connecting the car to the moving chain conveyor havecommonly been used. One is the puller hook and chain; the other is thepusher bar.

With the puller hook and chain7 an attendant must reach down under thefront of the car and attach the hook to some underpart. He then dropsthe dog, which is at the other end of the chain, into the track ofmoving conveyor. The dog is caught by one of the cross links of themoving chain and the car is by this means pulled through the car washequipment. Since the conveyor chain is in continuous motion and thepreceding car is moving steadily away, it is evident that if theattendant encounters difliculty in securing the hook to the underpart ofthe car, the distance between that car and the car ahead will beincreased. This is obviously not desirable for efficient use of the carwash equipment on busy days. At the finish end, another attendant mustuncouple `the hook and chain from the car, and to do so he must move thecar forward relative to the moving conveyor chain in order to putsufficient Slack into the otherwise taut chain to allow him to removethe hook from the car.

The other means mentioned above for coupling the car to the movingconveyor chain is a pusher bar. A pusher bar is a device which theattendant attaches to the conveyor chain behind the car to be washed.The device has an upright member which, as the conveyor chain movesforward, engages the rear bumper of the car and pushes it forward.Because of the height of the pusher bar relative to its width, thedevice is unstable and there is a tendency for the device to tip over toone side or the other. If the 3,404,639 Patented Oct. 8, 1968 ice devicetips .over sufficiently to pass under the rear bumper of the car, it mayengage and damage underparts of the car as it is carried relentlesslyalong bythe conveyor chain. To prevent or reduce the tendency of thepusher bar to tip over, the prior art pusher bar is both hooked andwedged on to the conveyor chain. As a result, the step of quicklyattaching the device to the moving chain requires some degree of skillon the part of the attendant. Unfortunately, car wash attendants do notordinarily have much skill. As a consequence, it frequently happens thatthe attendant is unable quickly to attach the prior-art: pusher bar tothe moving conveyor chain and the distance between successive carsbecomes greater than is desired for efficient oper ation of the car washequipment, particularly on busy days.

The purpose of my present invention is to provide a pusher bar devicewhich may be quickly and readily attached to the moving conveyor chainwithout requiring any degree of skill on the part of the attendant.

A furtherpurpose is to provide means as above which may be automaticallydecoupled from the moving conveyor chain at the finish line.

A further purpose is to provide a pusher bar which does not have to bewedged into place on the moving conveyor chain in order to maintain itsupright position.

Another purpose is to provide a pusher bar which may be merely loweredinto the slot between the rails of the conveyor track to be engaged andcarried -along by the conveyor chain, which will nevertheless retain itsupright position, and which will be automatically decoupled from themoving conveyor chain at the finish line.

The foregoing purposes and objects are achieved by providing a pusherbar device which is maintained in upright position by magnetic means,preferably by a permanent magnet.

The invention will be readily understood from the following descriptionof a preferred embodiment illustrated in the drawings in which:

FIG 1 is a side elevational view of the pusher bar of the presentinvention shown attached to the moving conveyor chain, and illustratingin phantom an automatically decoupled pusher bar;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the pusher bar, showing theconveyor track in section, looking in along line II-II of FIG. 1 in thedirection of the arrows;

FIG. 3 is a rear view looking along the line III- III of FIG. 1 in thedirection of the arrows, showing the pair of rollers at the rear end ofthe pusher bar; and

FIG. 4 is a view, in section, of the magnet looking along the line lV-IVof FIG. 1.

Referring now to the drawings, the pusher bar of the present inventionis designated generally by the reference numeral 10 and is `shown tocomprise an upright member 11 secured to the forward end of a horizontalchannel member 12 and braced thereto as -by a pair of braces 13. Theparts 11, 12 and 13 are preferably steel and the ends of the braces maybe secured to the upright member 11 and to the horizontal channel member12 by welding or by other suitable means.

Mounted for rotation at the rear end of the horizontal channel member 12is a pair of rollers 14, preferably made of nylon. The rollers 14 rideon the upper rails 15a and 16a of the conveyor track which is designatedgenerally by reference numeral 17.

The upright member 11 may preferably be a T-angle member with the crossmember of the T covered with a protector covering 26, preferably ofplastic, so that abutting engagement with the rear bumper of the car tobe pushed will not scratch the bumper. The protector covering 26 doesnot extend all the way down the upright T-angle member 11 and securedtherebelow to 'the T-member 11 is a U-shaped member 18 between the legsof which is tted a hook member 20, as seen in FIG. 2.

The hook member 20 is preferably secured to the legs of U-member 18 by asheer pin 21, so that the hook member 20 may be torn loose by the forceof the moving conveyor chain 25 in the event the car being pushed meetsan obstruction which bars its further forward progress, thereby avoidingdamage to the car. The hook member 20 has, at its lowermost forwardportion, a depending hook 22 which is rearwardly directed, and, abovethe hook 22, is a pair of lateral arms 23 which extend in opposingdirections. The arms 23 ride slidingly along the upper pair of rails 15aand 16a of the conveyor track 17 as best seen in FIG. 2. The lateralarms 23 also serve to prevent the forward end portion of the pusher bardevice from dropping down into the slot between the rails of the track17 so deeply that the hook 22 becomes lodged between the cross links 25bof the returning portion of the conveyor chain 25. For, if this occurs,the conveyor will jam and considerable damage to the equipment will besustained, in addition to loss of revenue.

The upper end of the upright T-angle member 11 is provided with a hook27, seen best in FIG. 2. This hook 27 is used for hanging the pusher bardevice 10` on an overhead return conveyor line for returning the pusherbar device from the iinish end of the car wash equipment to the startend for re-use.

As seen best in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 2, the track 17 for theconveyor chain 25 consists essentially of two E-shaped steel members 15and 16 which face each other, forming three pairs of rails at threelevels. The top pair of rails 15a and 16a are located at about or justabove the floor level of the car wash building, and on this pair ofrails rides the pusher bar device 10. The middle pair of rails 15b and16b carries that part 25a of the conveyor chain 25 which yis moving inthe forward direction, i.e. from the start line to the nish line of thecar wash. The bottom level of rails 15C and 16C carries that portion 25bof the chain conveyor 25 which is moving rearwardly, i.e., returningfrom the finish line to the start line. At spaced intervals, thespaced-apart rails of the middle pair of rails 15b and 16b, and thespaced-apart rails of the bottom pairs of rails 15e and 16C areconnected by steel bracing strips, not shown.

In accordance with the present invention, the pusher bar device isstabilized against tilting to either side by a suitably strong permanentmagnet 30, which may preferably be of Alnico material and which issecured to the pusher bar device near its forward end, preferably justbehind the upright T-angle member 11. While the magnet may be mountedand secured in any suitable manner, the magnet 30 is shown in theillustration as being secured to the horizontal channel member 12 by apair of bolts 31, placed into holes drilled in the magnet 30. For thepurpose of adjusting the vertical position of the magnet, one or morespacers 32 may be used. The north pole of the magnet 30 rides along inengagement with or just above one of the two top rails a, 16a, and thesouth pole of the magnet rides along the other rail of the pair. I havefound that the magnetic force between the magnet legs and the rail isadequate to prevent sidewise tilting of the pusher bar device.

To attach the pusher bar device 10 to the moving conveyor chain 25, theattendant may lower the hook 22 end of the pusher bar device 10 into thespace between the top pair of rails 15a, 16a, until the lateral arms 23,rest on the rails. In so lowering the hook 22 end of the device 10, theattendant may hold channel member 12 at a slight inclination relative tothe horizontal, with the rear rollers 14 slightly above the rails, untilthe hook 22 has entered the slot between the rails. Then the rear end ofthe device may be lowered. This method of slightly inclining the device10 forwardly as he lowers it into the slot of the conveyor chain trackis, however, not essential. The attendant may merely lower the devicehorizontally on to` the rails of the track, i.e. with the member 12horizontal, or substantially horizontal. He must, of course, so lowerthe CII 4 device that the hook 22 and the stabilization post 29 (laterreferred to) enter the slot between the rails.

When the device 10 is so positioned, by either of the methods referredto above, on to the track 17, the hook 22 is engaged by the next crosslink of the moving chain 25 to come along and is carried forwardthereby.

In order to stabilize the device 10 against lateral motion, a dependingpost or projection 29 is provided on the underside of channel member 12near the rear end. This projection 29 is so spaced from the hook 22 thatthe projection will fall between successive cross links of the chain 25.In other words, the device 10 is not stabilized by a tight wedgingaction between one or more depending projections and the cross links ofthe chain, as is the case with the prior art pusher bar previouslyreferred to.

At the nish end, the device 10 is automatically decoupled from theconveyor chain 25 by means of a short ramp 34 secured, as by welding, tothe top rails 15a, 16a of track 17. When the fore `part of the device 10reaches the Iramp 34, the pai-r of lateral ar-ms 23 ride up the ramp,`as indicated in phantom in FIG. 1, and the hook 22 is cammed up fromthe chain 4cross link with which it had been engaged. An attendant thenremoves the decoupled pusher bar device and places it, by means of itshanger hook 27, on the return overhead conveyor chain, which isordinarily located to the side of the main path, `for lretu'rn of thedevice 10 t0 the starting line for re-use.

`It will be understood that when the pusher bar device 10 is coupled tothe moving chain 25a and its upright member 11 is pushing a car throughthe car-wash equipment, the device tries to pivot about the hook 22 `anda heavy force component in the downward -direction is imposed on therear end of the device. This downward -force component is taken by therollers 14 and rails 15a, 16a. So long as the car is being pushed thereis little or no downward lforce component on the magnet 30 `and littleor none `on the lateral arms 23. However, at some point `or points inthe travel of the `car through the car wash equipment, as for example,at the wheel wash point, where the wheels are spun, the reaction Iforceof the car against the upright pusher bar is relieved, and a smallspacing may appear between the pusher bar and the bumper. As Aa result,unless provision is made for stabilizing the pusher device againstlateral tiltin-g, the upright 'pusher bar will tilt over to one side orthe other but without disengaging the hook 22 from the chain. Hence,there is the danger as the tilt-ed pusher device is carried for- 'wardby the conveyor chain, the pusher bar will pass under the bumper anddamage the underparts of the car. It is this sort of hazard which isprevented by the magnet 30. For, when the reaction `force of the car onthe pusher is relieved, the forward part of the pusher device, whichincludes the magnet 30 and the arms 23, settles down on the rails andthe strength of the magnetic forces prevents lateral tilting of thedevice.

While the preferred embodiment of this invention has been described insome detail, it will be obvious to one skilled in the art that variousmodifications may be made without departing from the invention ashereinafter claimed.

What is claimed is:

1. In an automatic car wash installation, in combination; a conveyortrack including a pair of rails with a slot therebetween and a conveyorchain in the slot; a pusher bar device for detachably coupling a motorvehicle to said conveyor chain; said device including: a horizontalmember adapted to ride along said rails; an upright pusher bar mountedon and extending upwardly from said horizontal member for pushingengagement with the rear bumper of the motor vehicle; a hook disposedbelow the forward portion of said horizontal member and adapted to enterinto said track slot for engagement with said conveyor chain; astabilizing post disposed below the rearward portion of said horizontalmember and adapted to enter into said slot for stabilizing the deviceagainst lateral movement; and a permanent magnet so mounted on saiddevice that one pole of said magnet is proximate to `one rail of saidpair of rails and the other pole of said magnet is proximate to theother rail -for stabilizing said device against lateral tilting when notpushingly engaged.

2. In the combination according to claim 1 characterized in that saidmagnet is mounted on said horizontal member just `behind said uprightpusher bar.

3. In the combination according to claim 1 characterized in that thetrack rails are provided, at the finish end, with upwardly inclined rampmeans for automatically camming the forward end of said device upward,thereby to automatically decouple the hook from the conveyor chain.

4. For use in an automatic car-wash installation; a pusher bar devicefor detachably coupling to a conveyor chain movable along a slottedhousing, the upper surfaces of which form a pair of spaced-apart railsfor said pusher bar device, said pusher bar -device including: ahorizontal member adapted to yride along said pair of trails; an uprightpush bar mounted on said horizontal member and adapted to pushinglyengage the rear bumper of a motor vehicle; a hook disposed below saidhorizontal member and adapted to enter into the slot between said rails`for engagement with said conveyor chain; and a permanent magnet mountedon said device and adapted to bridge across said slot from one rail tothe other for stabilizing said device against lateral tilting when notpushingly enrgaged.

5. A pusher bar device las claimed in claim 4 characterized in that astabilizing post projects downwardly from the rearward portion of saidhorizontal member adapted to enter into the slot between said rails `forstabilizing the rear portion of said device against lateral movement.

6. A pusher bar device as claimed. in claim 5 further characterize-d inthat the rear end portion `of said horizontal member is provided with apair of 'rollers adapted for rolling engagement along said pair ofrails.

7. A pusher bar device as claimed. in claimt 6 further characterized inthat the upper portion of the hook is provided lwith a pair of laterallyextending arms adapted for sliding engagement along said rails andadapted for preventing the hook from ldropping too deeply into saidslot.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,022,746 2/1962 Wells 104--1723,064,587 11/1962 ONeal 104-172 3,125,964 3/1964 Silverman 104-148ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner.

D. F. WORTH, Assistant Examiner.

